A Few Assorted Thoughts About LLMs in November 2026

In the right hands, LLMs can produce good, reliable software in shorter timeframes than ever before. Most hands are not the right hands. Most organizations using LLMs to write code are producing slop, no matter what they tell you in their press releases.

LLMs are useful tools. They're also the products of the greatest theft of intellectual labor in human history. Both of these things can be true at the same time.

You should keep writing code by hand. You should keep learning computer science. You should have projects where you do not allow yourself to use any LLM assistance. Why? For the love of it, of course. But also to stay sharp, to understand how the sausage is made, to get close to the machine, and to make sure you're never fully dependent on silicon for your cognitive needs.